Mara Lee Miller, a.k.a. Bosque Brown, felt the cataclysmic effect of Hurricane Katrina. Her grandparents, who lived near Biloxi, Mississippi, were forced to flee their home of more than 50 years, an episode that scarred both their surroundings and their psyches. Miller documents their experience with the four-song Cerro Verde…

Although Jay Bennett departed Wilco before the band swapped roots rock for experimental indulgence, his solo career found its own progressive posture. His 2002 collaboration with Edward Burch, The Palace at 4am (Part 1), saw him flirting with texture and ambiance, lending his music a more cerebral sensibility. The Magnificent…

Like Nick Cave, the Go-Betweens, and Midnight Oil, the Triffids resided in the rarified strata of Aussie rock bands that carved an indelible indie niche in the mid- to late Eighties. They did produce a series of minor classics, all of which are due for domestic reissue by the Domino…

With a resumé that includes a day job with the Mavericks and occasional moonlighting with Los Super Seven, former Miami homeboy Raul Malo bows to middle age and the middle of the road with a solo set of sanitized standards. Finding his Roy Orbison-like tenor recast as a smooth cocktail…

Fleetwood Mac’s incestuous entanglements have nothing on the romantic spark of the Submarines, a Boston-bred duo whose relationship with one another was seemingly as cursed as it was creative. With a recent reconciliation, the group’s debut disc is brimming with lovelorn sagas about betrothal and betrayal, amply illuminated by a…

Boston-bred folkie Susan Werner vies for contention via a new American anthem, one reflecting the sad state of our nation. With a theatrical delivery bolstered by solo piano and a swell of strings, Werner laments a country that “tilts sharply to the right, with our leaders straight and white,” where…

Venice Is Sinking may seem like a less than descriptive moniker for this Athens, Georgia quintet, but the overcast melodies that pervade the band’s full-length debut do project a clear sense of despair. Nevertheless an undeniably haunting sound is etched in these sad, sweet songs, as manifested in the forlorn…

Roger O’Donnell packs some powerful credentials, given his stints as keyboardist for erstwhile Eighties outfits such as the Psychedelic Furs, the Thompson Twins, and, most recently, the Cure. However, on his second solo album, O’Donnell’s synthesized doodling finds him abandoning the oldies and tapping into more celestial strata. Mostly it…

Jerry Joseph helms the Jackmorons, a Portland, Oregon outfit that specializes in resolute Americana anthems propelled by passion and purpose. Those strengths are certainly evident here, and though Joseph has forfeited individual billing, his dark, tempestuous perspective still prevails. The arrangements have been altered this time around, given denser textures…

Many bands revel in their roots, but few amble as close to the heartland as the Missouri-based Bottle Rockets. Their no-frills approach is tough and tenacious, reflecting an underdog attitude that tends to downplay resignation in favor of an occasional upward glance. Zoysia, their eighth studio set, provides the ideal…

What’s this? Frank Black, the mercurial leader of the Pixies, one of the most brooding and foreboding bands from the postpunk era, sounding enthusiastic? Soaking up the vibe of an all-star musical assemblage — Steve Cropper, Spooner Oldham, Buddy Miller, The Band’s Levon Helm, Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson, Bad Company’s…

After a silence of five years — during which time singer Tim Burgess temporarily embarked on a solo sojourn — the Charlatans have regrouped and released the most focused effort of their seventeen-year career. As always, there are ominous overtones residing just below the surface, from the drive and deliberation…

Like a vacant wind whistling across a distant prairie, the New Amsterdams’ hollow-eyed ruminations are often eerie and unsettling yet at times unexpectedly enticing. The band’s fourth effort is a mostly furtive affair, one that takes time to gain traction. Many of the melodies linger just out of reach, and…

Immortalized by last year’s somewhat sensationalized biopic Walk the Line and revered by the grunge generation — the result of his final Rick Rubin-produced recordings (a posthumous Volume V is due soon) — Johnny Cash cast a resilient and defiant persona that affirmed his status as an Americana icon. Personal…

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Dr. John, a.k.a. Mac Rebennack, has undergone a number of incarnations in a career that spans nearly 50 years, from the acid-tinge voodoo of his Night Tripper persona to his role as one of New Orleans’ most revered champions of American musical tradition. Following several outstanding albums elaborating on the…

Over the past 30 years or so, Alan Parsons has created a reliable musical brand by recruiting the talents of high-profile contributors and presiding over the proceedings with his name on the marquee. Valid Path follows the same formula, even as it marks Parsons’s continued transition from old-school to new…

An avant-garde effort by two disparate bands attempting to bridge the expanse between experimental jazz and neoclassical composition, The Nitrate Hymnal is odd yet ambitious. Punk veterans the Gena Rowlands Band and fusion cooperative Anti-Social Music have pooled their ambitions to create a sparse, idealized narrative about an old woman…

Girl groups always seem to have a knack for attracting attention, although sometimes the reasons could be considered suspect. Looks often have a lot to do with it, and it says something about our sexist society that women with a musical pedigree don’t always make an impression based on ability…

It is not unusual to find a veteran artist’s latest offering touted as an auspicious undertaking and hailed as a milestone, especially when given the anticipation of an album long overdue. However, in the case of roots rocker Alejandro Escovedo’s The Boxing Mirror, those pronouncements are well warranted. It comes…